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Susan Mac Cormac is a partner in the Corporate Department of Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco office. She serves as Chair of the Social Enterprise and Impact Investing Group, and Chair of the Energy and Clean Technology Groups.

Ms. Mac Cormac has extensive experience representing startup to late-stage private companies primarily in the clean technology, renewable energy and sustainable space. She provides corporate and finance advice in connection with equity and debt financings, mergers, acquisitions, asset purchases and sales, reorganizations, and joint ventures. She regularly advises boards of private and public companies, special committees, and CEOs on corporate governance as it relates to sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues. In addition to her representation of nonprofit corporations involved with Sustainability and CSR, providing advice to their boards on fiduciary issues, conflicts of interest, and other corporate matters, she has deep experience and expertise in ensuring energy, sustainability, and other investments have positive impact – through use of new corporate forms, hybrid or “tandem” structures with non-profits and for-profits and alternative debt and equity instruments.

Ms. Mac Cormac was named by California Lawyer in 2012 as a California Attorney of the Year for her effective legislative change in California as co-chair of the Working Group for the Flexible Purpose Corporation and again in 2016 for her innovative work in impact investing, sustainability, and corporate form. In 2015, the Financial Times named Ms. Mac Cormac the Most Innovative North American Lawyer for her work championing impact investing and social enterprise legal innovation. In 2016, Ms. Mac Cormac was honored with the National Public Service Award by the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section for providing significant pro bono legal services. Clients say that “you cannot get a better corporate counsel,” and that Ms. Mac Cormac “‘understands the big picture, could not be more responsive and understands the business.” She was recognized by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the “Most Influential Women in Business” in 2018 and by the Daily Journal on several Top Lawyers in California lists including Top 100 Lawyers (2012), Top Female Lawyers (2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, and 2018), and Top 25 Clean Tech Lawyers (2011). She was also recognized by The Recorder as a Woman Leader in Tech Law in 2016 and 2018. Ms. Mac Cormac was selected by her peers for Best Lawyers in America (2011–2018) and was named Best Lawyers’ 2014 San Francisco Energy Law “Lawyer of the Year.” She was also recognized by clients in Legal 500 United States (2009–2018) in the areas of venture capital and emerging companies, project finance, and renewable and alternative energy.

After working in New York for three years, Ms. Mac Cormac joined the firm as an associate in 1997 and became a partner in 2001. Ms. Mac Cormac was born in Davidson, North Carolina, and graduated in 1988 from Williams College with a degree in Political Economy. She received her J.D. and LL.M. degrees from Duke University School of Law in 1993. Ms. Mac Cormac lives in the Presidio National Park with her husband and three young boys (Eddie, Alex, and Matthew).

Ms. Mac Cormac was a founding board member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, is a member of the Board of Directors of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), the Ceres President’s Council, and the Board of Directors of Earth Genome Project, and an advising board member of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy’s Strategic Investor Initiative.

She has joined the faculty (teaching on the intersection of sustainability and fiduciary duties) at both the Stanford Director’s College and the Northwestern Corporate Counsel Institute and is an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, Boalt Hall, teaching a course on Social Enterprise. She is admitted to practice in both California and New York.

In 2015, the Financial Times named Ms. Mac Cormac the Most Innovative North American Lawyer for her work championing impact investing and social enterprise legal innovation. She was named one of California Lawyer’s Attorneys of the Year in 2016 for her innovative work in impact investing, sustainability and corporate form, and in 2012 for her effective legislative change in California as the co-chair of the working group for the Flexible Purpose Corporation. Ms. Mac Cormac received the 2016 National Public Service Award from the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section for her innovative pro bono services to nonprofits, and has been recognized on several leadership lists, including the San Francisco Business Times “Most Influential Women in Business” in 2018, The Recorder’s 2018 and 2016 Women Leaders in Tech Law, as well as the Daily Journal’s Top Female Lawyers for 2018, 2017, 2016, 2012, and 2011 and Top 100 Lawyers for 2012.

Ms. Mac Cormac was selected by her peers for Best Lawyers in America 2011–2018 and was named Best Lawyers’ 2014 San Francisco Energy Law “Lawyer of the Year.” She was also recognized by clients in Legal 500 United States (2009–2018) for her expertise working with venture capitalists and emerging companies. Clients say “you cannot get a better corporate counsel,” Ms. Mac Cormac “‘understands the big picture, could not be more responsive, and understands the business.”

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